Focus Mode and Silence

[matsan]

Maybe this is just a case of the Mandela Effect, but I need to ask.

I teach class at an irregular interval, last time was in July and most recent this Sunday. In July I ran iOS 17 and now iOS 18.
Spouse, mom and dad have Emergency Bypass enabled in Contacts.I have a strong memory that I was able to set my iPhone 13 to silent with the side-switch during class and see but not get sound notification of incoming notifications from my emergency contacts on the screen.

This Sunday however, I also got sound notifications for messages my emergency contacts sent in the Family chat. This forced me to set the phone to Airplane Mode without WiFi, not the desired mode with elderly parents.

If I want to have notification on screen from my Emergency Contacts but not the sound, how should I do?

 

[NoBoMac]

Hmmm... don't use Emergency Bypass, so have not experienced, but it is labeled as it will bypass the mute switch when a contact has it enabled. Assuming it's been like that since day one. And does not really apply to text messages.

As how to get this to work, Focuses.

Focuses have a lot of options, so might need to play with it a bit, but based on what happened, something like this:

• Add family to a Focus under people
  • Allowed people only
  • Disable repeated calls
• Have nothing listed under Apps
  • Maybe Time Sensitive off
• Notification options:
  • Silence Notifications = Always
  • Show on lock screen = on

Hit the mute switch, enable the Focus. You should now see notifications on the screen, phone will buzz when call comes in from people you allow, but phone should otherwise be pretty much inert. Reverse the actions to get back to normal.

And remove bypass from the contacts in question.